This blog features my research on Northern Virginia's dynamic and diverse communities.

Saturday, June 04, 2011

Fieldschool: Now the fun begins

We finished the second week of the field school on Thursday. The procedures have been reviewed, teams selected and contacts distributed. For the first time since summer school started, I returned home without a load of recorders, mics and batteries.

The first weeks of a field school are intense, but fun. We've toured the Pike by car and bike, the students have been sent out to hang out, observe and document. My sense is that the students are ready to make the move into the field put into practice what they've been learning in the classroom.

In planning for the project, my goal was to have a solid list of potential informants for the students to interview. Something reasonable, about 2-3 interviews per person. My preliminary fieldwork was much more successful than I expected, and I have a list of about 50 people who would like to participate in the project. My hope is that the student teams can interview most of them.

I'll be meeting with individual teams throughout the rest of the term. I'll keep you posted on their progress.

Here are a few photos from the last week.

Field school participants Marielle Barrow and Brittney Pierce. They will be examining musical traditions on the Pike

Folklife Specialist Guha Shankar from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress gives a lecture on the use of digital recording equipment

Annie Hallman and Sahar Haghighat will be focusing on the Douglas Park neighborhood of Columbia Pike

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